Chronicle: RuneScape Legends is a free to play digital collectible card game (ccg) that features a few unique twists on the genre. Players construct custom card decks from a selection of available archetypes which vary in theme and playstyle, just as in most other ccgs. However in Chronicle: RuneScape Legends the player will effectively be playing against his or her own deck. Each game is divided into five rounds called chapters. At the start of each chapter a "book" opens up and the arena pops up from it. Both players have their own track in which to play cards from their hands. The idea is to put your cards in the optimal sequence to get the most rewards and character enhancements from the effects on the cards. As your character advances through the cards, it will receive gold, buffs, damage and other effects, some of which are directed at the other player's character. If both player's characters make it through all of the chapters, they duke it out in a final battle determined by the stats that they gained making their way through the chapters. This may sound confusing as the game's play mechanics are unique and hard to put into words, but the quick tutorials do a decent job of explaining the game play and it is all really quite simple to play.

The game is presented as chapters in a "pop-up" book, where the page is turned and the landscape of the arena for that chapter emerges from the book. Graphically the game is very impressive and features a somewhat cartoony style similar to that of Hearthstone. In fact the cards, deck builder and overall presentation are clearly highly influenced by Hearthstone's style, but set in the well established RuneScape universe lending the game's theme a style of its own. The game's animations and overall production values are quite high, and the game is very nice to look at.

After signing up for a free account on the game's website and downloading the game client, the first thing new players are presented with are two short tutorials that interactively walk the player through a practice game while explaining the rather simple play mechanics of the game. While it is quite easy to learn, designing optimal decks made to produce hands with good combos and then executing these strategies are where the games layer's of tactical depth lye. It is easy to learn and probably takes some time to really master.

Chronicle: RuneScape Legends features casual and ranked pvp as well as friend matches and a drafting/arena type mode as well. As of this writing there are no single player campaigns or modes beyond the tutorial, and no player vs. ai matches beyond the initial tutorial. As with all of these free to play ccg's, in game currency is earned through playing and in-game booster purchases can be made with the game currency or with actual money. While watching the developers stream on twitch during the open beta launch, they indicated that the game is designed to be played competitively without the absolute need to spend real money. The game's unique mechanics make it an interesting entry into the rapidly expanding field of digital ccgs and may be worth checking out for fans of the genre, for the low price of free.